BBC in new fakery row as zebra battling croc-infested rapids scene ‘stitched’ together using different takes in Serengeti wildlife show

THE BBC has found itself in a fresh fakery row after a scene of a zebra battling a crocodile-infested rapids was dubbed as “stitched” together using different takes in the Serengeti wildlife show.

Viewers were quick to mock the series as a wildlife “Made in Chelsea” for using computer technology to move the story-line forward.

It has emerged that the scene containing a zebra in the croc waters is in fact a “composite” of two or more clips combined together, The Sunday Times reported.

The BBC has insisted all the live action is real, taken from more than 3,000 hours of footage shot over a year.

FAKERY ROW

However viewers who have analysed the clips online suggest more than just clever editing is going on.

Shown in episode four, “Misfortune”, the young Zebra is seen desperately swimming through a river next to a large crocodile.

As Star Wars actor John Boyega narrated the scene, he said that the “foal is swept far away, exhausted, vulnerable, he’s oblivious to the danger”, as the zebra floats along the screen.

But the image of the drowning foal seemingly appears to be detached from its watery background.

A clip of the scene on the official BBC Earth YouTube channel has been watched more than 750,000 times.

The show’s viewers were quick to share their thoughts on the “edited” clip.

One social media user said: “Am I crazy or did they actually just CGI a zebra into those rapids? What the hell?!”

Another said: “Did Discovery straight up fake an ‘almost’ croc attack? That looked suspiciously fake as all hell.”

While a third said: “BBC should save its CGI for dinosaur animations…this is ridiculous.”

‘THIS IS A DRAMATISATION’

Series producer and director John Downer said last week: “We have been clear and up front that Serengeti is a dramatised series and this includes making use of common drama techniques.

“We believe that the BBC audience can differentiate between ‘documentary’ and ‘dramatised’ natural history.

“No animals were created using CGI but occasionally compositing techniques, which combines real footage, is used to help the narrative and the dramatic flow of scenes.”

Bafta and Emmy award-winning cameraman Doug Allan, who worked on shows such as Frozen Planet, said: “The water is real. The zebra is real and the zebra did really get carried down the stream – you can see that from other footage.

“But whether the zebra was in that particular bit of water as seen on screen, who knows. They could be in different places at different times.

“But the BBC have been honest that this is a dramatisation.”

It’s not the first time BBC has been under fire for showing footage that was “stitched” together using different takes.

In June 2017, Planet Earth II was embroiled in a fakery row after the producer reportedly revealed the award-winning iguana scene was “stitched” together.

The nail-biting beach battle between an iguana and racer snakes left viewers stunned and won a Bafta for the Must See TV Moment last year.

The BBC denied the sequence was “faked”, and instead said scene where one iguana made a dash for safety like viewers were led to believe was in fact a series of combined clips.